Sofia Rositani – Editor-in-Chief
Big Bang came back with a ballad, not a bang.
Big Bang came back after years of not being on the music scene due to one member getting married, military drafting and multiple scandals. This time around they came back with four members instead of five.
I waited an hour for the music video to come out and I was not disappointed. The video was beautiful, the song was beautiful, and I am not going to lie, the four men in the video were beautiful too. Especially my bias. A bias is someone you like the most in a group. My bias is Daesung, who still cannot see from his hair covering his face.
It has been four years since they came back as a group. This will be the first as a four member group, due to Seungri’s scandal.
“Seungri, whose real name is Lee Seung-hyun, was indicted in January 2020 on multiple charges, including arranging illegal sexual services for business investors from Taiwan, Japan and Hong Kong from 2015 to 2016,” according to an article from NPR. “He was also convicted of embezzling funds from a Seoul nightclub he ran and violating laws prohibiting overseas gambling by betting heavily at foreign casinos from 2013 to 2017. He denied most of the charges.”
Since then, Seungri has been charged with 3 years in jail and was also fined 1.15 billion won ($989,000), according to the NPR article.
Prior to these charges Seungri had announced his withdrawal from the group.
Big Bang debuted in 2006 and was hailed as the “Godfathers of K-Pop” because honestly no group can do it like they do.
“As the Internet celebrates Lin Manuel-Miranda and Leonardo DiCaprio landing on the Time 100 list, a South Korean boy band was quietly beating everyone from President Barack Obama to Beyoncé on the Time 100 Most Influential of 2016 reader poll. BIGBANG is barely a household name in America, but speak their name in South Korea, and you’ll probably get screams of ardour from their countless fans,” according to an USA Today article.
Iti s unknown if the group is continuing to do a full album or a mini album or if this is a one last goodbye song before they turn away from the spotlight once more. TOP, Choi Seung-hyun, wrote on Instagram essentially saying thank you to YG Entertainment, the staff, the group and the fans for the past 16 years of being in Big Bang. He has not officially released a statement saying he is leaving the group, but the letter made it seem like he is.
When watching the video, I could tell they have grown so much while being away from the group and spotlight. Especially since they all were ultimately involved in scandals while in the military and after it too.
“Still Life” reflects where Big Bang is right now, but it’s also a track that long-time fans can relate to. Lyrics like “Goodbye now to my beloved young days” and “I keep remembering those glorious and loving days” bring listeners back to when Big Bang was touring the world and selling out shows with nonstop activity,” according to the Rolling Stone, “Now, more than fifteen years into their careers, the members have become more introspective and seem to be content with where they are at, and with everything they’ve overcome. T.O.P raps about “burying all the trauma from past nights” and vows, “I’m going to change more than before to become a good person even more.”
This group has been a huge part of my life and I am hoping that fans will get the satisfaction of at least one more album from the group, a world tour would definitely be a bonus, but we do not want to push it.
